Communicative activities provide students with the opportunity to hear and use language. These types of activities require students to communicate with each other to complete a task or shared goal and use specific target language at the same time.
They come in a range of different formats and require a range of interaction that supports a differentiated approach to the curriculum to develop oral language across talking, listening, reading and writing through purposeful interaction between learners.
They can be used to:
teach KLA content
develop vocabulary
build up field knowledge in preparation for writing
support ESL learning by providing access to KLA content
encourage ESL students’ oral language use
encourage interaction and cooperation among students
Examples of communicative activities
Enquiry and Elimination using two matching posters of set of matching cards. One student chooses a card or identify an object on the poster (unseen by the other participants). The other participants must guess by inquiry (asking closed questions) and then eliminating peripheral information e.g. celebrity heads
Information Gap the aim of information gap activities is for students to share information with each other in order to complete a task. Students have parts of the whole which they share in order to complete the whole. This can be done in teams/pairs or individual. by taking turns studentsmust ask questions to obtain the information they require to complete the task. e.g. spot the difference, ccommunicative crossword, logic matrices and cloze passages.
Sorting
pairs or groups, students sort objects into various categories (which may be determined by you or by the student)
Classifying
pairs or groups, students sort objects into various categories that are predetermined by the specific/technical language uses in KLA's (e.g. animals in science, texts in literacy, artworks, sports, geographical sites)
Ranking
Group or pairs of students rank items and justify their decisions.
Sequencing
In pairs, students sequence a series of pictures, dialogue, life cycles, texts etc, and recount the events
Matching
In large groups students must match sentence halves, picture halves, words and pictures.
Dictogloss
Students are read a short text and must listen for meaning. Students listen to the text a second time and note the key words and clauses. The text is read a third time for clarification and then the students reconstruct the text by talking in pairs or groups.
For more information on communicative activities download the attachments below
Communicative Activities
Communicative activities provide students with the opportunity to hear and use language. These types of activities require students to communicate with each other to complete a task or shared goal and use specific target language at the same time.They come in a range of different formats and require a range of interaction that supports a differentiated approach to the curriculum to develop oral language across talking, listening, reading and writing through purposeful interaction between learners.
They can be used to:
teach KLA content
develop vocabulary
build up field knowledge in preparation for writing
support ESL learning by providing access to KLA content
encourage ESL students’ oral language use
encourage interaction and cooperation among students
Examples of communicative activities
using two matching posters of set of matching cards. One student chooses a card or identify an object on the poster (unseen by the other participants). The other participants must guess by inquiry (asking closed questions) and then eliminating peripheral information e.g. celebrity heads
the aim of information gap activities is for students to share information with each other in order to complete a task. Students have parts of the whole which they share in order to complete the whole. This can be done in teams/pairs or individual. by taking turns studentsmust ask questions to obtain the information they require to complete the task. e.g. spot the difference, ccommunicative crossword, logic matrices and cloze passages.
pairs or groups, students sort objects into various categories (which may be determined by you or by the student)
pairs or groups, students sort objects into various categories that are predetermined by the specific/technical language uses in KLA's (e.g. animals in science, texts in literacy, artworks, sports, geographical sites)
Group or pairs of students rank items and justify their decisions.
Sequencing
In pairs, students sequence a series of pictures, dialogue, life cycles, texts etc, and recount the events
In large groups students must match sentence halves, picture halves, words and pictures.
Students are read a short text and must listen for meaning. Students listen to the text a second time and note the key words and clauses. The text is read a third time for clarification and then the students reconstruct the text by talking in pairs or groups.
For more information on communicative activities download the attachments below
Purposeful Cognitive Organisers
see also AITSL standardshttp://www.teacherstandards.aitsl.edu.au/Illustrations/Details/IOP00166
http://www.teacherstandards.aitsl.edu.au/Illustrations/Details/IOP00132